With the Boer Forces | Page 3

intricacies of
diplomacy. The Boers desire to gain nothing but their countries'
independence; the British have naught to lose except thousands of
valuable lives if they continue in their determination to erase the two
nations. Unless the Boers soon decide to end the war voluntarily, the
real struggle will only begin when the Imperial forces enter the
mountainous region in the north-eastern part of the Transvaal, and then
General Lucas Meyer's prophecy that the bones of one hundred
thousand British soldiers will lay bleaching on the South African veld
before the British are victorious may be more than realised.
One word more. The English public is generous, and will not forget

that the Boers are fighting in the noblest of all causes--the
independence of their country. If Englishmen will for a moment place
themselves in the position of the Boers, if they will imagine their own
country overrun by hordes of foreign soldiers, their own inferior forces
gradually driven back to the wilds of Wales and Scotland, they will be
able to picture to themselves the feelings of the men whom they are
hunting to death. Would Englishmen in these circumstances give up the
struggle? They would not; they would fight to the end.
HOWARD C. HILLEGAS. NEW YORK CITY, August 1, 1900.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY
The Blockade at Delagoa Bay--Lorenzo Marques in
war-time--Portuguese tax-raising methods--The way to the
Transvaal--Koomatipoort, the Boer threshold--The low-veld or fever
country--Old-time battlefields--The Boer capital and its scenes--The
city of peace and its inhabitants.
CHAPTER II.
FROM FARM TO BATTLEFIELD
The old-time lions and lion-hunters and the modern
types--Lion-hunting expeditions of the Boers--The conference between
the hunters and the lions--The great lion-hunt of 1899-1900--Departure
to the hunting-grounds.
CHAPTER III.
COMPOSITION OF THE ARMY

Burghers, not soldiers--Home-sickness in the laagers--Boys in
commandos--The Penkop Regiment--Great-grandfathers in battles--The
Takhaar burghers--Boers' unfitness for soldiering--Their
uniforms--Comfort in the laagers--Prayers and religious fervour in the
army.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ARMY ORGANISATION
The election of officers--Influences which assert themselves--Civil
officials the leaders in war--The Krijgsraad and its verdicts--Lack of
discipline among the burghers--Generals calling for volunteers to go
into battle--Boers' scouting and intelligence departments.
CHAPTER V.
THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM
The disparity between the forces--A national and natural system of
fighting--Every burgher a general--The Boers' mobility--The retreat of
the three generals from Cape Colony--Difference in Boer and British
equipment--Boer courage exemplified.
CHAPTER VI.
THE BOERS IN BATTLE
Fighting against forces numerically superior--The battle at
Sannaspost--The trek towards the enemy--The scenes along the
route--The night trek--Finding the enemy, and the disposition of the
forces in the spruit and on the hills--The dawn of day and the
preparation for battle--The Commandant-General fires the first
shot--The battle in detail--Friend and foe sing "Soldiers of the Queen."
CHAPTER VII.

THE GENERALS OF THE WAR
Farmer-generals who were without military experience--A few who
studied military matters--Leaders chosen by the Volksraad--Operating
in familiar territory--Joubert's part in the campaign--His failure in
Natal--His death and its influence--General Cronje, the Lion of
Pochefstroom, and his career--General Botha and his work as successor
of Joubert--Generals Meyer, De Wet, and De la Rey, with narratives
concerning each.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE WAR PRESIDENTS
The Boers' real leader in peace and in war--Bismarck's opinion of
Kruger--The President's duties in Pretoria--His visits to the laagers and
the influence he exerted over the disheartened burghers--His oration
over Joubert's body--His opinion of the British, and of those whom he
blamed for the war--His departure from Pretoria--President Steyn and
his work during the war.
CHAPTER IX.
FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR
The soldier of fortune in every war--The fascination which attracts men
to fight--The Boers' view of foreigners--The influx of foreigners into
the Boer country in search of loot, commissions, fame, and
experience--Few foreigners were of great assistance--The oath of
allegiance--Number of foreigners in the Boer army--The various
legions and their careers.
CHAPTER X.
BOER WOMEN IN THE WAR
Boer women's glorious heritage--Their part in the political arena before
the war--Urged the men to fight for their independence--Assisting their

embarrassed government in furnishing supplies to the army--Helping
the poor, the wounded, and the prisoners--Sending relatives back to the
ranks--Women taking part in battles--Asking the Government for
permission to fight.
CHAPTER XI.
INCIDENTS OF THE WAR
Amusing tales told and retold by the burghers--Boy-burghers at
Magersfontein capture Highlanders' rifles--The Takhaar at Colenso,
who belonged to "Rhodes' Uncivilised Boer Regiment"--Photographers
in battle--The heliographers at the Tugela amusing
themselves--Joubert's story of the Irishman who wanted to be sent to
Pretoria--The value of credentials in warfare as shown by an American
burgher's escapade--The amusing flight after the fall of Bloemfontein.
APPENDIX.
THE STRENGTH OF THE BOER ARMY

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
COMMANDANT-GENERAL LOUIS BOTHA (_Photograph by R.
Steger, Pretoria._)
GENERAL LUCAS J. MEYER (_Photograph by Leo Weinthal,
Pretoria._)
BATTLEFIELD OF COLENSO, DECEMBER 15, 1899 (_Photograph
by R. Steger, Pretoria._)
BOERS WATCHING